Kings Mountain residents file lawsuit

Another divisive issue has reared its leafy head at King's Mountain Resort, a residential community in southwestern Somerset County that has long been at the center of the local windmill controversy.

Trees.

The resort wants to cut them. Some residents do not. And the issue is now the focus of a new lawsuit in Somerset County court.

Seven residents are seeking a court order to prevent the resort from cutting trees or building hauling roads until a judge determines whether the acts violate the resort's restrictive covenants. The covenants prohibit clear-cutting trees, building structures more than two-and-a-half stories high and using lots for anything other than "private residential purposes."

Property owners cited the covenants last year in another lawsuit that sought to prevent seven windmills from popping up on resort property near Scullton. Resort officials agreed to abandon those plans in September.

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Somerset attorneys Robert Boose and Daniel Rullo filed the new lawsuits on behalf of seven residents: Robert Clark, Richard and Marsha Beahr, Susan Wilson, Scott Rodgers, and Brian and Joanne Koeberle. All but the Koeberles, who are represented by Rullo, were involved in the original lawsuit.

Boose said his clients believe the resort will begin timbering operations in the immediate future - this while the issue of timbering as it relates to the covenants has yet to be resolved.

"We really need the court to set forth what they can and cannot do," he said.

The petition asks the court to impose a temporary injunction prohibiting timbering and the development of haul roads on resort property. Otherwise, the residents will suffer substantial and irrefutable harm, the lawsuit states.

"The trees which the defendant desires to timber, once removed, due to their size and age, cannot be easily replaced in the event the court determines such activity violates the restrictive covenants," Boose wrote.

In a second lawsuit, the Koeberles are seeking to prevent a logging company from setting up a haul road and staging area on a lot adjacent to their seasonal home.

"Our issue is much more limited than Mr. Boose's issue," said Rullo, who represents the couple.

The lawsuits have once again thrown the two sides into court, where a hearing is scheduled for April 14. A Somerset County judge delayed the hearing earlier this month with the condition that no timbering may take place on the properties until the motions are heard.

Resort President Frank Bock declined comment Friday.

"We're not going to try it in the newspaper. We're going to try it in court," he said.

Bock's attorney, Louis Pomerico of New Castle, was unavailable for comment. Previously, Pomerico said that his client was committed to improving the resort and had turned his attention away from windmills and toward maintaining the property and generating profits through selective logging of undeveloped land.

Property owner Susan Wilson remains concerned about how selective that logging will be.

"We settled into a woodland resort community and they want to log it out and take away the woodland," she said. "If you set up turbines, you take away the resort."

While attorneys argue over logging in Somerset County, the issue of windmills has re-surfaced in neighboring Fayette County.

Freedom Wind Energy LLC - the company once tied to the resort windmill project - has petitioned the county for permission to erect a 150-foot-tall weather tower in Springfield Township. Phil Herbert, the company's managing director, said the tower could be a precursor to windmills if conditions permit.

"That's the whole purpose of putting up a wind tower - to essentially make a determination as to the feasibility of … moving forward with the wind project," Herbert said.

The tower would be erected on land owned by Widmer Engineering of Beaver Falls, which purchased the property Dec. 29 from King's Mountain Resort. Freedom Wind Energy has an option to purchase the property from the company, according to company President Dave Widmer.

"Freedom Wind Energy purchased an option on the property almost simultaneously when we acquired ownership. They have until Aug. 1 to exercise the option and acquire the land," he said. "If Freedom Wind Energy does not exercise the option, then the property will go onto the market for sale."

King's Mountain and Widmer Engineering agreed to transfer the land in April 2003 to settle old liens, "long before the first windmill at King's Mountain was discussed," Widmer noted.

The Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board is scheduled to meet April 20 to consider the wind developer's petition to erect the weather tower.

Meanwhile, another lawsuit has been filed in Fayette County on behalf of property owners Clark, Beahr, Wilson and Rodgers against Widmer Engineering. The lawsuit is seeking an injunction to stop the weather tower - again citing restrictive covenants that property owners believe run with the land.

The residents contend that windmills create excessive noise, a strobe effect and drastically lower property values. Wilson said the towers would be located less than a mile from her home.

Herbert said he is considering taking the project elsewhere if he continues to encounter resistance and regulatory hurdles.

"This whole process of what I'm going through in Fayette County has begun to wear on me, let's put it that way," he said.